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For break-in purposes, the M60s found themselves in our main video system, a two-channel music rig with Sony Trinitron CRT and Cambridge Audio Azure DVD player for movies. The Genesis monos took over for the usual Bel Canto Design eVo4 Gen2. The customary Gallo Reference 3.1s on Analysis Plus Big Silver Ovals telegraphed differences in performance right away. Obviously improved were tone color, image density and projection intensity (what some refer to as soul whereby music makes you a participant rather than bystander). Amplitude and extension seemingly became a new low point in the bass, primarily because of more fullness and juicer textures. That wasn't really for objectively more bass but subjectively, it's exactly what it sounded like - more bass. Gallo's SA amp runs the second voice coils on older Ref 3s in the small upstairs video rig. With the Genesis blocks, the SA was clearly neither required nor -- because of redundancy -- even welcome.


This correlates with Anthony Gallo's comment on CES 2006. He'd used Arcam's latest FMJ player into a Sonic Euphoria TVC. The new 550wpc Spectron Musician III [faded overlay below] provided amplification. "Except for one organ pipe recording, I couldn't tell whether the SA amp was switched in or not." A boatload of SA amps have sold to Ref 3 owners with tube amps. Those tube heads are heads over heels with the results, sez Anthony. Presumably, a lot of their valve amps are medium-powered jobs. Many are probably no-feedback single-ended designs to boot. That makes transistor grunt on the sealed woofers the ideal hybrid solution. Alas, with a big McCormack, Gallo's Spectron or higher-power push-pull tubers such as John Potis uses on his Ref 3.1s -- Canary Audio's mighty 160-watt EL34 monos -- you'll find that the Gallos require no bass augmentation. Ditto for the M60s. They're "manly men" speaker wranglers as well.
They're quiet too, both mechanically and electrically. No hum on the Gallo woofer, no hum on the transformers, no whoshing surf on the CDT II tweeter. In fact, no funky noises, no turn-on or turn-off thumps - nothing untoward that might give transistor owners the willies. Ditto for heat. The hottest item on these amps is the tube cage. It hovers right above the valves to get nicely toasted from below. Move your hand from the cage to the transformer casings, however, and you'll notice a major drop in operating temps. Those trannies stay cool. So does the chassis. Clearly, this isn't a circuit that stresses its output devices. (For reference, the Rogue Stereo 90 makes ninety watts from the same number of KT88s.) That should mean adequate headroom for the M60s for those instantaneous peak power demands that characterize music signal in that completely random but always exponential fashion especially on classical orchestral fare or special-effects tracks.
The revealing Gallo break-in regime of the amps had me remember my trusty old BMW Paris-Dakar Enduro. Its horizontally opposed transverse Boxer engine had proven ultra reliable even in the dead of winter. The bike handled like a dream in the twisties. Its simple but generationally evolved and perfectly tuned power plant was far more flexible in use than the high-revving, always shifting in-line four of my previous Ninja 900-based Kawasaki Eliminator Z1000. That dragstrip pretender could accelerate from 0-60 in a blinding 3.1 seconds. Yet it handled worth shit in anything but straightaways. It was all flash and testosterone, very little useful practicality. Hands downs, the beemer was the best all-purpose 'un of the six bikes I've owned. Should two wheels ever be in my future again, they'd be an R1200GS.


There was reason for this biker detour. Like the boxer engine in the go-anywhere Enduro, the Genesis poop on the Melody scoop makes no bones. These amps are by-the-book affairs. They're simply executed to a very high level. There's no reinvention of the wheel, no pending patent. There's no mystery circuit, no exotic valve, no finicky ritual. There's feedback. There's phase splitting. There's manual bias adjustments. There's real-world power, neither too little nor too much. There's thus a lot of commoner's dirt when you consider the tattered bible the micro-power triode crowd thrusts at detractors. As my readers know, I'm a triodist. Except I've ditched their stupid bible. I'm open-minded enough to really get and own the Gallos. That means I'm cognizant that SETs with their impedance variances and lowly damping factors aren't ideal Gallo tickets regardless of potential power (certain ultra-expensive SET can deliver 100 watts after all). If you're a tube fox because you want to transcend the usual transistor dryness, think push/pull valves on the Gallos. Think low output impedance, good damping factor and solid power. Say hello to the M60s then.


In best-of-their-kind fashion, the M60s erect a laterally expansive soundstage of robust density. Unlike the occasionally hallucinatory psychedelic effects of certain micro-power SETs (think a bit otherworldly like perhaps highly polarized and tinted sunglasses), the ballsy M60 sound is very much of this world. Power and drive combine for obvious substance and mass, size and weight. No matter how good bass can get from zero NFB triodes, it is, at best, impressive for their sort. But by comparison to the Genesis monos, it's simply not in the same class. Sorry, SET friends.


Bass control and impact require current, damping and power reserves. With the M60s, there's no doubt who's in charge. But it's not simply about slammage. It's not just about avoiding ill-defined bloom or sloppy excess. It's not just about delivering the full brunt of the bass and thereby more than just hints. It's about tone and color in the basement. It's why certain Wilson owners like moonie Mike Malinowski fancy big VTL amps. They unveil the gravitas and transient impact those speakers carry in their back pocket but also the harmonic fullness embedded in the lower octaves. It's why Adam Decaria of Zu runs his 101dB Definitions on Mark O'Brien's 225wpc Rogue Audio Zeus (incidentally another KT88 design). It's why marrying the M60s to the Gallo Ref 3.1s is a rocking combo full of juice and involvement but also finesse and attention to the small details.

Yes, these monos aren't quite as subjectively fast as my micro-power Yamamoto which couldn't drive the Gallos if its life depended on it. But they completely avoid the fuzzies and, on actor dialogue, produce very tactile clarity even well off-axis to avoid that echo-y faux ambience which gives rise to the center channel concept with lesser amps. On Matthew McConaughey's Sahara, Clive Cussler's treasure-hunters-meet-environmental-disaster tale, the opening Civil War shelling of the iron-clad ship and the closing battle of the tanks in the desert allowed very happy levels. The amps dished out high-impact mortar rounds without any indication of compression limiting nor did they ever have me wish for a subwoofer or dedicated bass amp. Power and control can be massive fun!


In my context, the M60s behaved like refined muscle amps that should be all any sane user with sane speakers would ever need to rock down the house without ever flinching. To take the measure on refinement and ultimate resolution, the amps now traveled into the big rig to replace my Yamamoto or FirstWatt F3 on the customary Zu Definition Pros in residence and in the context of a true ne-plus-ultra digital front end.
Thus far, my observations and descriptions read as though I'd copied John Potis' review of the 160wpc Canary Audio EL34 monos. John used to own Bryston ST 7Bs, some of the burliest transistor muscle amps around. Trading up to the Canary amps meant more full-bodied sound but no audible loss in power or control. It that's old "tube watts sound louder" thing. Without going into technical reasons for that -- gentler overload behavior is usually one of the claimed factors -- it's something many listeners have observed. Accordingly, the M60s don't act like 60-watt amps if you're thinking 60-watt solid-state integrated for example. The monoblock configuration makes for completely separate power supplies. This doubles headroom reserves over a stereo model. Add the mythical power multiplication factor of tubes with the monoblock config and the actual power rating is rather deceiving.

In the big rig, the M60s continued to be dead quiet. Once I took the Hyperion Sound tube preamp out of mute, I got a little bit of noise standing right next to the speakers, this due to seriously redundant gain (that pre's volume control sits at 12:30 for the Yamamoto and 7:30 on the M60s for equivalent levels). Make no mistake - with 101dB speakers, that's world-class noise performance for all three components. To kill the very modest steady-state hum with the active pre in the chain (completely inaudible in the listening seat between tracks) merely meant inserting my passive Music First Passive Magnetic on these unusually efficient speakers. This also gave me more reasonable attenuator range.


The presence of the M60s in this system translated as a densely packed, very gutsy presentation. It sounded as though all the tones had just come from the gym pumping iron. Image density compacted over the Yamamoto but surprisingly, I didn't lose much ambient recovery. Piano in particular -- say on the glorious Anouar Brahem Le Chat Noir-reminiscent Hayalgibi 2 by Göksel Baktagir [Akustik label out of Istanbul] -- exuded amazingly developed tone colors left of middle C. I thought of sun-ripened Cyprean oranges which I had tasted over my winter vacation this year. They and their lime cousins with the yellow skins cause veritable explosions of perfectly balanced acidity and sweetness in your mouth. That tension of opposite flavors turns up the contrast ratio if you will. The same held true for Özer Arkun's elegiac cello on The Professionals [Class Müzik, Yapim Dagitim], a meeting of four Turkish master musicians on balaban, clarinet, accordeon and cello with ambient support. Playing famous folk melodies in simple yet very tasteful settings that occasionally veer into dances, each soloist -- but especially the cello -- wade deeply in just producing unhurried glorious tones which then are surrounded by arabesque tendrils of glittering embellishments. In fact, Arkun's cello style is reminiscent of YoYo Ma's solos for Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger.
I already knew from the Gallo experiment that the M60s command the grand gestures of big swells, dense climaxes and convoluted material. I thus deliberately hit them with chamber-type music next to determine how they'd do with the tiny underhanded gestures. In a word, rather brilliantly. Perhaps because of their superior noise floor; perhaps because of reduced THD due to feedback; those sudden and unpredictable changes of bow pressure on the cello, of air speed on Bülent 'Kirpi' Altinbas' G-clarinet or Azad Abilov's accordeon didn't lose any finesse to emotionally flatten out their performances. High resolution simply coupled with rich timbres and no thickening. Baktagir's kanun with its plucked strings served as my primary focus for leading-edge attacks. If the Genesis monos slowed anything down, I certainly didn't notice it.
Being on a Mediterranean kick, I next loaded Eleftheria Arvanitaki's 1996 Polygram collaboration with Demetres Papademetriou, then George Dalaras' Mediterranean | 30th - 40th Parallels on Parlophone. The latter is my Best-of-2005 tie with Andreas Vollenweider's Vox and Vicente Amigo's Un Momento en Sonido. On it, Greece's most
famous singer joins the stage with Dulce Pontes, Eddy Napoli, Mira Anward Awad, Halil Moustafa, full orchestra, Ponte's Portuguese ensemble and Greek instrumental soloists. The record uses live cuts from a celebrated two-day concert and literally raises the roof of your listening room with glorious songs and ecstatic audience applause. This recording is all about huge - pathos, passion, celebration, the most famous songs of its singer soloists who are emoting at the top of their lungs playing off one another. This wants to be played loud, i.e. at levels realistic for the scope and scale of the recording. The contact high from being there at the Odeon of Herod Atticus hall, with thousands of Dalaras' landsmen and women recognizing and appreciating the greatness of the occasion - well, the M60s delivered. Drenched in feelings, I wiped away a few tears and ironed out plenty of goose bumps.


The moral of that lesson? Anyone who holds push/pull tube amps in disregard as though they lacked refinement needs to do a few rounds with the M60s. Gary Koh and his collaborators -- Mr. Wang heading Melody, Bascom King and Arnie Nudell in the US -- have authored a phase-splitting amplifier single-ended guys will recognize as being different to possess its own special virtues but not being so far removed from their sensitivities to close any doors. When Eduardo de Lima of Audiopax embarked on his project brief to clone the perfect triode (he was thinking about the 2A3 and 300B for tone, the 845 for power and drive), he settled on the KT88. Having two 300B amps in-house -- the Canary CA-308s and the SilverTone Model 3.2 -- I'm here to tell you that the M60s give up nothing in the tone department but spread that particular luv sideways into the treble and particularly the bass where 300Bs simply can't keep up. Sorry SET friends.

Put in very basic terms, the M60s maintain the pressure in sound pressure even when the decibels are lower. By the time you prime the pump, the roof of your audio cabriolet retracts, the windows go down and you feel the sun on your skin and the wind in your hair. While I have questioned the wisdom of parking mondo power at the tail end of a highly efficient speaker, the Genesis monos make a very convincing argument for it. In my current digs, I usually can't listen at elevated SPLs for long since there's no room for Ivette to retreat to. The M60s' particular glory kicks in fully at levels just a bit higher than my domestically agreed upon regular dosage. If I owned these, I'd want a bigger room and sit farther in the far-field. For once, I agree with brother Chip's dogma that more power isn't always needed but always welcome.


With my ill-disguised excitement over this Genesis discovery -- after all, who knew that this firm would offer anything other than loudspeakers -- you may still question what these amps sound like. Warm but not rosy. Gutsy get never overdamped or unnaturally striated. Dynamic scale masters. Linear. Very much in control of the loudspeaker. Clearly not curtailed at the frequency extremes. Obviously tube in how tonal colors are evenly saturated without going overboard or psychedelic. Perhaps not ultimately as hyper resolved as for example my Yamamoto A-08S because the M60s expand scale to shift your attention away from the minuscule. Alas, when you conduct actual A/Bs to focus stubbornly on details, there's nothing that these amps really leave on the table. They just present this detail somewhat differently.


Tone is clearly taken care of with the 6SN7/6SL7s on board but, perhaps because of push/pull THD cancellation, never enters the deep triode zone. More importantly, it's evenly distributed bottom-to-top to avoid a skewing of the perceived tonal balance. The only nit I can really pick has nothing to do with sonics. It's got to do with the M60s' deep black lacquer. Once you perform your first of many regularly scheduled dusting sessions, you're liable to create those telltale swirl marks unless you use a super-clean cloth and some wiping fluid.


The verdict for these amps is clearly an unqualified heads up. Because I haven't heard the $2,195 Rogue Audio Stereo 90 (you could bi-amp with a pair of those for just a tiny bit more than the M60s and have 1/3rd more power even), I'm simply not well-versed enough in this particular product category to cast an unequivocal vote in relationship to the competition. I think there's little competition for the Genesis brothers when you combine build quality, cosmetics and performance. Still, the American Rogue amp for example suggests that there's some (and the Rogue doesn't require a voltmeter to set bias but comes outfitted with its own though its cosmetics aren't quite as upscale).


The Genesis M60s are stupendous performers that seem set to drive anything within reason and just as well as they did for me on my Gallo Ref 3.1s. They're reference amplifiers without a doubt. Check out a pair when you have a chance. Put them on your list even if you think you're shopping for SETs. These amp might just derail your plans. Stay tuned for more as the M60s get down on the dance floor with the Melody SWH 1688 II preamp Gary dispatched for this very purpose. Enough for today from me though. I let Gary close out this report with an e-mail he sent me after fact-checking the raw copy.


Hi Srajan,
Many thanks. Sounds like you like my little amps. That's a great review. Makes me want to run out and buy those CDs you mentioned! And of course that particular George Dalaras is not available on Amazon...

We kinda surprised a lot of folk at CES2006 too [below]. We especially surprised John Atkinson with the I60 integrated. In February's Stereophile, he reviewed our G5.2 speakers (and gave us the cover!) and said that it needed big Levinsons or Krells to drive it. We demo'ed that speaker with the I60 to great effect and he graciously put that in his CES blog.
If there is any need for more power, you can parallel a pair of M60s for even more current. All you need are a pair of jumpers (make them less than 6 inches long) and parallel the output speaker taps (black to black, 8-ohm to 8-ohm). Then drive them in parallel with the parallel outputs of the Melody preamp (finally a reason for why the SHW1688 has four outputs per channel) with the same type and length of interconnect. Yep, the M60s are stable enough for you to do that without them going crazy. I'm not a big fan of bridging tube amps - if there are any noise or non-linearities in the amplifier, bridging will double it. Running them in parallel will half the output impedance and make 2 pairs capable of driving almost any loudspeaker you would care to throw at them. We threw the prototype G3s at them during CES and they did not even flinch.


Cheers
Gary
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